Most business leaders believe innovation is critical for U.S. colleges to remain globally competitive

At a time of great debate over the value of a col­lege degree, a new national survey reveals a con­cern among U.S. busi­ness leaders about the pipeline of talent pro­duced by Amer­ican col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties. While most exec­u­tives express sup­port for the Amer­ican system of higher edu­ca­tion, they also believe the U.S. is falling behind global com­peti­tors and inad­e­quately preparing grad­u­ates to suc­ceed in the modern workforce.

The new survey, the third in a series by North­eastern Uni­ver­sity, presents the views of C-​​suite exec­u­tives, with a par­tic­ular focus on global com­pet­i­tive­ness, the employee skills gap, employer work­force invest­ments, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for policy reform.

According to the new survey, more than half of busi­ness exec­u­tives (54 per­cent) believe the U.S. is lag­ging behind devel­oped and emerging coun­tries when it comes to preparing col­lege grad­u­ates for career success.

The report also high­lights a con­cern from the C-​​suite about the notion of an employee “skills gap.” Nation­ally, 73 per­cent of busi­ness leaders say there is a skills gap among today’s work­force, and an even greater number (87 per­cent) believe that today’s col­lege grad­u­ates lack the nec­es­sary skills to succeed.

“These find­ings under­score a crit­ical call to action for all of us in higher edu­ca­tion to inno­vate,” said Joseph E. Aoun, pres­i­dent of North­eastern. “Busi­ness leaders—who are key part­ners for col­leges and universities—want higher edu­ca­tion to be more expe­ri­en­tial and want us to instill entre­pre­neurial qual­i­ties in our graduates.”

Info­graphic of Survey Results

Region­ally, busi­ness leaders have some­what varying views. In Boston, where the con­cern is less wide­spread, only 64 per­cent of exec­u­tives see a skills gap. In Char­lotte, N.C., 71 per­cent are con­cerned about a skills gap, while in Seattle the figure is 76 per­cent. The North­eastern survey over­sam­pled busi­ness leaders in Boston, Char­lotte, and Seattle—the three Amer­ican cities where the uni­ver­sity main­tains campuses.

Among the attrib­utes most impor­tant for col­lege grad­u­ates to pos­sess, busi­ness exec­u­tives rank com­mu­ni­ca­tion, inter­per­sonal skills, and adapt­ability at the top of the list. That echoes the sen­ti­ments of the majority of Amer­i­cans from Northeastern’s August 2013 poll, who said so-​​called “softer skills” such as com­mu­ni­ca­tions and problem solving were most impor­tant. According to the new survey, nearly one-​​third (28 per­cent) of busi­ness leaders believe that very few recent col­lege grad­u­ates actu­ally pos­sess those skills.

Busi­ness leaders are divided on the ques­tion of whether col­lege grad­u­ates will be more (27 per­cent), less (32 per­cent), or equally (39 per­cent) pre­pared for the work­force in the next 10–15 years. The find­ings were con­sis­tent across the sam­ples in Boston, Char­lotte, and Seattle.

In addi­tion to the hur­dles pre­sented by the skills gap, recent grad­u­ates face a job market that is in many ways still recov­ering from the Great Reces­sion. Nearly two-​​thirds of exec­u­tives say the reces­sion impacted their busi­nesses, with the most com­monly cited con­se­quence being a reduc­tion in the number of entry-​​level jobs.

Con­sis­tent with find­ings from Northeastern’s pre­vious two sur­veys, C-​​suite exec­u­tives believe that col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties should develop inno­v­a­tive ways to edu­cate and pre­pare stu­dents for the workforce.

An over­whelming majority of respon­dents (97 per­cent) say that expe­ri­en­tial education—the inte­gra­tion of class­room study with pro­fes­sional experience—is crit­ical to an individual’s suc­cess. A large majority of busi­ness leaders (89 per­cent) also believe the nation’s higher edu­ca­tion system should expand oppor­tu­ni­ties for teaching entrepreneurship.

Other note­worthy regional find­ings include:

• While most U.S. busi­ness leaders (72 per­cent) cite per­sonal drive as the most impor­tant factor for career suc­cess, busi­ness leaders in Boston and Seattle cite the value of men­tors and advisers at a higher rate than respon­dents nation­ally. While just 27 per­cent of busi­ness leaders across the country place great value on men­tors and advisers, the figure is 45 per­cent of Boston busi­ness leaders and 43 per­cent of their Seattle counterparts.

• Busi­ness leaders in Seattle tend to be more sup­portive of online col­lege degrees. Nearly 6-​​in-​​10 Seattle exec­u­tives say an online degree pro­vides a sim­ilar quality of edu­ca­tion as tra­di­tional degrees, com­pared to 47 per­cent in Char­lotte and 45 per­cent in Boston.

The release of the survey results will take place at a summit on higher edu­ca­tion held at the Inter­con­ti­nental Hotel in Boston. The summit, Inno­va­tion Imper­a­tive: Enhancing the Talent Pipeline, fea­tures a high-​​profile panel of CEOs and thought leaders including Pres­i­dent Aoun; Gary Got­tlieb, pres­i­dent and CEO, Part­ners Health­Care; James T. Brett, pres­i­dent and CEO of The New Eng­land Council; and Jeff Selingo, con­tributing editor at The Chron­icle of Higher Edu­ca­tion. The event is spon­sored by North­eastern, in part­ner­ship with WGBH Radio and the New Eng­land Council.

The survey inter­views were con­ducted by tele­phone among a rep­re­sen­ta­tive sample of more than 500 C-​​suite exec­u­tives and busi­ness leaders in the U.S. from Feb. 3–19, 2014. It includes an over­sample of 300 respon­dents in Boston, Char­lotte, and Seattle. The margin of error is +/​-​​ 4.37 for the national sample and +/​-​​ 5.65 for the regional sample.

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2 comments

The skills gap defi­cien­cies in adapt­ability, inter­per­sonal skills, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and problem solving were more than ade­quately filled by a tra­di­tional lib­eral arts edu­ca­tion back in the 1950’s-1970’s. Training in spe­cific skills required in var­ious indus­tries was left to the cor­po­ra­tions to pro­vide. Cor­po­ra­tions have suc­ceeded in shifting this respon­si­bility onto the col­leges which have largely replaced the tra­di­tional approach with job-​​training cur­ricula. Simply adding more career-​​specific courses and pro­grams will likely not solve the problem. A broad-​​based lib­eral arts edu­ca­tion stressing human­i­ties, writing, his­tory, social sci­ences, sci­ence, math, and the arts, is the best route to grad­u­ating adapt­able, cre­ative, and com­mu­nica­tive stu­dents with problem solving skills valued by employers.

The article high­lights many valid points. Edu­ca­tion is extremely impor­tant in order to re-​​establish the United States as the leader in sci­ences, inno­va­tion, math­e­matics, etc. How­ever, my greatest cri­tique of this article is that it side steps the major problem with post-​​secondary edu­ca­tion in the United States — the cost. As much as North­eastern would love to tout the impor­tance of edu­ca­tion, and its ‘proac­tive’ steps to pro­vide a greater expe­ri­ence, the school only adds to the bur­geoning dilemma. To put this into per­spec­tive, Steve Odland of Forbes​.com points out, “Col­lege costs have been rising roughly at rate of 7% per year for decades. Since 1985… the col­lege edu­ca­tion infla­tion rate has risen nearly 500%.” Also, according to the U.S. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion, “Bor­rowers are defaulting on their stu­dent loans at the highest level since 1997.” (bloomberg​.com) Bear in mind that under U.S. law, stu­dent loans, unlike credit-​​card or debt mort­gages, can rarely be dis­charged in bank­ruptcy. (stu​den​taid​.ed​.gov) So when busi­ness exec­u­tives are polled by an insti­tu­tion (which con­ve­niently raised tuition, again) and wonder why there is a skill gap in the United States, they ought to remember that the problem is the system and those who con­trol it. If you want to read an excel­lent, yet mind-​​numbing article, read this http://​www​.forbes​.com/​s​i​t​e​s​/​s​t​e​v​e​o​d​l​a​n​d​/​2​0​1​2​/​0​3​/​2​4​/​c​o​l​l​e​g​e​-​c​o​s​t​s​-​a​r​e​-​s​o​a​r​i​ng/

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